Humor can be very hard to find

Saturday

May 11, 2013 at 6:00 AM

George Barnes Barnstorming

After one of the more hideous weeks I can think of, I am looking for a little humor.

This week we saw weird and endless debates about whether someone should be buried and where they should be buried. That may be finally sorted out, but the whole mess left many of us uncomfortable and more than a little embarrassed.

And then there were stories leading the news about horrible kidnappings and really crazy potential kidnappings and murder. I am still having nightmares over these. It has been a crazy week.

I really need to find something funny to write about.

I will try, but my head is so full of angst that my laugh track seems to be shut off. Normally my main targets of my slightly mean-spirited humor are myself, the state of New Hampshire or my cat.

My cat is now dead and no longer amusing. New Hampshire has become much more liberal and will no doubt soon start selling granola and 1 percent milk in its state liquor stores. My third target, myself, is also not a good subject right now because I am now handicapped, or at least temporarily handicapped.

I make a point of never poking fun of people who are handicapped. It isnít fair, and isnít funny. People who joke about the handicapped have no business making jokes.

I am handicapped right now because I decided to go down a flight of stairs face first. I didnít hit my face, but wrenched my back and wrist. I have spent the week seeking sympathy from people and hope to milk another week of sympathy out of it before getting back to normal. It has been a tough sell so far.

Anyway, there is nothing amusing about my situation unless you were at Gardner District Court the other day watching me try to take notes with my wrist strapped up. A 2-year-old could have done a better job holding the pen between his toes.

But finding humor is difficult since the best humor often comes from poking fun of life around you. I look around and what do I see? Itís spring. Flowers are blooming and the earth is warming. People seem almost giddy with joy.

The one exception may be at town meetings. Town meetings are often wonderful examples of democracy in action. There are also the town meetings I seem to end up at, places where, if you did not have a migraine headache going in, you did by the end of the first hour.

Not to pick on Templeton, but I just printed out its annual town meeting warrant. My first reaction was, ďMy grandchildren will be ready to retire before we finish acting on this.Ē

There are 62 articles on the warrant, no doubt all important. Most of them will be debated, berated and conflated before they are passed or rejected.

I have a theory about town meetings that the more articles, the more it becomes a rough, tumble, slightly fun and often aggravating affair.

Artist Norman Rockwell once portrayed the idea of Freedom of Speech in a painting showing a serious-looking man addressing a town meeting. Everyone in the picture is listening to him. None appear to be snickering. None seem to be pointing rude fingers at him and none, as far as I can tell, are sitting there playing Angry Birds on their cellphones.

Iíd like to visit that town sometime. In Templeton and many other towns I have covered, the warrants are chock-full of articles approved by the selectmen. They also have citizens petition articles. These articles are put on the warrant by voters who want their voices heard even if no one else wants to hear them.

Some of the articles are good ideas and quickly approved. Others are a bit less than good, and often by the time they are voted on, people are lighting torches and menacing their opponents with pitchforks.

Itís great fun.

Contact George Barnes at gbarnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG.